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ITV News Westcountry: Protest gets underway at Hinkley Point

Protesters from all over the UK have gathered in Somerset at the site earmarked for the first of a new generation of nuclear power stations.

People began to arrive at the camp on North Wick Moor in the early hours of this morning. They are planning to scale the fence around land being cleared for the controversial Hinkley C power plant.

Tomorrow symbolic barrels of radioactive waste will be wheeled through the streets of nearby Bridgwater to highlight the stockpile of high-level nuclear waste that will be stored at Hinkley C if it gets the green light.

But the protesters' vehicles are now trapped in the field they are using for the camp. The land is on enclosed farmland with some common rights. The commoners say they have no right to bring vehicles onto the site. The protesters say they will leave on Tuesday but want to move hired minibuses from the site.

The Stop New Nuclear Alliance expects there will be a number of arrests.

Meanwhile, EDF Energy is clearing asbestos from the site of the planned new nuclear reactors today. Planning permission for preparation works has been granted but the company is yet to hear whether the Government will approve two new nuclear reactors. A decision is expected early in the New Year. EDF say they will have invested up to a billion pounds in the application by then.

Stop New Nuclear is a campaign to stop new nuclear power stations and is an alliance of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, CND Cymru, Stop Nuclear Power Network UK, Kick Nuclear, South West Against Nuclear, Shutdown Sizewell, Sizewell Blockaders, Trident Ploughshares, Stop Hinkley, and Rising Tide UK